


Strings, Secretaries, and Shenanigans

by Sin_of_the_Fallen



Series: The Avenging You [1]
Category: Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, First of Series, Games, Gen, Job Openings, POV Second Person, Possible (Fake) Medical Condition, Possible Romance with Character(s), Pre-Iron Man 1, Reader-Insert, String Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-30
Updated: 2013-11-30
Packaged: 2018-01-03 01:03:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1063814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sin_of_the_Fallen/pseuds/Sin_of_the_Fallen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First attempt at second-person and You stories, but likely to expand into its own little AU with possible pairings that involve You.<br/>---<br/>You have nothing to do, and you're out of a job. So why not apply to be Ms. Potts' secretary? It's not like you're actually going to be hired when you are anything but a secretary...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strings, Secretaries, and Shenanigans

 

When you go to the interview, it's just on a whim. You're not even qualified to be a secretary, so there's no use in getting worked up about this. And since you have a tendency to be brutally blunt and honest with your opinions it's probably for the best. A lawyer would have had a apoplexy if _you_ were his secretary, who knows what would happen if you were Ms. Potts' secretary

 

You have no reason to be applying for a position you know you will not get, but you don't have anything else to do today. Without work you find that your schedule is oddly free, but after goofing off today it's going to be packed with your attempts at finding a stable income. Your bank account will only hold out so long after all.

 

You wait in a lounge with several other ladies, dressed nicely but not as nicely as the others. Or like you're out hunting for a husband.

 

One by one they go in and come back out in various levels of upset. You're pretty sure they were told not to wait for Stark Industries to get back in touch with them.

 

Time crawls as you wait and wait, but listening to music helps to relieve the boredom. Eventually you even pull out your phone to alternate between reading a e-book and the news. With this you're finally satisfied, and you quit watching the comings and goings.

 

No longer paying any attention to the interviews, you're startled when Ms. Potts herself comes into view with a peculiar amused expression on her face. Unrepentant in the face of your potential boss, you pause the music and save your spot before standing. You shake her hand and introduce yourself, calmly, as if you spoke to celebrities and powerful people all the time. 

 

Ms. Potts keeps eyeing you, as if she expected something different. Maybe she did, since you were no secretary. Perhaps there was some sort of secret secretarial greeting you were supposed to give, and Ms. Potts is curious as to why you chose to forgo it.

 

Whatever it was that unsettled her wasn't enough to keep her from leading you to the room. Inside it at last, you find it to be nothing special. It's a tastefully apointed room, without anything of note- You take that back when you finally register that this unimportant room has an impatient Tony Stark residing within it. He looks bored, agitated, and restless to you, as if he is counting the nanoseconds until he's free.

 

While Ms. Potts is bustling about finding your papers you consider his prescience further. You find it only is logical to have Mr. Stark here as well since Ms. Potts' minion would come into frequent contact with him. Best to weed out those who can't keep it together in front of him before they try something stupid. Like stealing his underwear and selling it on the black market to the highest bidder.

 

When everything is in order it is Ms. Potts who is conducting the interview, not Mr. Stark. Once you determine Ms. Potts isn't going to involve Mr. Stark at all, he is thus rendered into a background accessory as far as you're concerned. You pay him no more attention than you would a fancy vase. Idly you wonder if the other candidates had simply ignored Ms. Potts when they saw him. It would explain why some interviews went so spectacularly quickly.You answer as best you can, feeling pressed by Ms. Potts' intensive questioning, but the woman seems somewhere between amused and aghast that you had the cheek to apply.

 

 Mr. Stark finally explodes into a frenzy of kinetic energy and volume when it becomes clear you're as secretarial as a particularly smelly dead fish. He paces and postulates conspiracy theories, but you keep watching Ms. Potts as she seems torn between being outraged at you or Mr. Stark. (What does shields have to do with anything? You do not fancy dressing up in medival armor and own nothing of the sort.)

 

Eventually he shouts a question at you, and you answer with a shrug. Maybe he'll calm down if you stay calm.

 

"Why did I apply? I'm out of work, had some free time, and decided there wasn't really any reason not to apply. I wasn't going to suffer from a rejection notice. I _am_ surprised I got to the interview portion since screening should have barred me."

 

After you quit speaking it is dead silent. Ms. Potts and Mr. Stark are thunderstruck, and seem disinclined to believe your reasons for applying. But even if this famous duo throws you out on your ass in a minute you find a certain satisfaction with this whole incident. You had rendered them speechless.

 

The silence is interrupted when Mr. Stark suddenly starts having a fit. It's not a tantrum, and he isn't seizing, so you're unsure about what to do. You compare this to when he was pacing earlier. Maybe he's thinking so fast his brain is having issues keeping up? You have no idea what's going on, but maybe you can distract Mr. Stark long enough for Ms. Potts to find a solution.

 

You check your purse for something to use as a distraction, and your findings are disappointing. There's only that Rubix cube you never solved and the string you use for Cat's Cradle and the like. But as you stare at the string you feel a idea coming to you. And you might pull it off as long as you hang onto your calm.

 

"Mr. Stark have you ever heard of Bars?" You hold up the string and eye him curiously, like if you had only asked him if he had ever heard of Chinese Checkers.

 

In the midst of what seems to be illogical psychotic babbling, he manages to squeeze in a "No." You shake your head. " That's too bad. I would have thought that you of all people would know it..."

 

You watch to see if your bait can derail his thoughts, and nearly smirk in triumph when he turns to stare at you. As he eyes you without another word, you wonder why no one mentions how unnerving it is to have the full attention of a genius brought to bear on you. 

 

" It takes two people to play. One must make a net with the string and the other must try to put their whole finger through the net without being captured. The goal is to either make the net impossible to evade or to evade the net. The rules are that you can only use the string on hand and one finger is all the evader can use." 

 

Mr. Stark sticks out his pointer finger with intensity, ignoring or not even noticing as Ms. Potts dashes from the room. You oblige him and begin weaving your net. It's surprising, but you're enjoying the game you made up on the spot. You have a long piece of string to work with, but you also have the feeling Mr. Stark knows nothing about string games. So you decide to use a modified version of the old Thumb Trap.

 

You make it incomplete, carefully acting clumsily, and only go to step two and a half out of seven. It's a hole covered defense, but all you need to do is tighten the string to make it close up. Mr. Stark looks at it dubiously, but you believe he will fall for it.

 

He jabs his finger through the defense without care and is shocked when you catch his finger just by tightening the string to step three.

 

* * *

 

You watch him as you play your game, seeing how he slowly winds out of his fit. His irises are normal again, his breathing is regular, and he has totally forgotten why you're here. You feel justified in feeling a bit smug, happy your gamble paid off. Another quick check to make sure you weren't seeing things, then you let the string fall from your fingers.

 

Mr. Stark frowns at you and makes to speak(which would have been the first time since calming down,) but Ms. Potts interrupts. 

 

"You're hired." You blink in surprise. This was unexpected. You ask her why. Ms. Potts smiles at you as she puts a syringe down on the table. 

 

"If you can get Tony to calm down without this, I can work around your lack of secretarial experience."

 

Mr. Stark waved her words away like they were smog before swiftly and carefully putting the string back in your palms. "We weren't done, I haven't had the net yet." 

 

You blink in surprise before a smile breaks out as you giggle at his tone.

 

And to think you were so sure you wouldn't be hired.

 

 


End file.
